Story of my work

I have always had a passion for the arts, music, dance, theatre, written and visual. From an early age I knew I wanted to surround myself with creatives. While in school I dappled in all forms of the arts but fell in love with painting. Specifically, abstraction. Through abstraction I could express thought/ideas/feelings without the encumbrance of observable objects. I spent many afternoons in the library paging through every old master art book I could find. I learnt composition from Mondrian, color from Van Gogh and Matisse, concept from Ellsworth Kelly and Duchamp. And visual perception from the Op-art of the 1960’s. I started exploring identity using wallpaper and fabric patterns inspired by the Pattern and Decoration movement from the 1970’s. I have studied the meanings of patterns from around the world which led me to many eastern philosophies with an emphasis on Buddhism. I layered and juxtaposed patterns next to and on top of one another in pursuit of how I perceived my own identity. Once I gained access to photo manipulation software, I digitized the hundreds of patterns I had collected. By layering these newly adapted images a new visual language of shape, color and hardedge emerged.  During the pandemic I once again went to Photoshop and manipulated my older work to find new compositions, and approaches to color and perception. These new paintings emphasis hard-edged, shapes with settle politically charged color, and false transparent shapes (circle) that is rooted in geometric abstraction and the Buddhist concept of the Dharma Wheel where the circle becomes a place of mindful meditation through the optical transparency. My current work plays with the addition of graffiti writing or tagging within the geometric structure…. More on this later, stay tuned

Bio

I have been a Professor of Art at Washington & Jefferson College for 20+ years. I teach painting, drawing, and design. I have exhibited my paintings, drawings, drawing installations and sculptures from L.A. to NYC, to Washington DC to Kansas City to Florence and Cosenza Italy to Budapest, Hungary and many places in between. My work is in several collections, recently one of my pieces was added to the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art in Altoona, PA and I am represented by 33 Contemporary, Lake Worth, FL , Thomas Punzmann Contemporary in Frankfurt Germany White Room Gallery, in East Hampton. I have also showed with Baker Howard Contemporary in London and the Todd Weiner Gallery in Kansas City, MO. I have attended residencies at Box of Contemporary Space in Cosenza, Italy, and Chateau Orquevaux in Orquevaux, France, and Studio Faire in Nerac, France I have participated in several art fairs notability The Art Market Budapest, in Budapest, Hungary, Red Dot Miami, in Miami, The Other Art Fair in Brooklyn, and the Spring Break Art Show in NYC. I live in Pittsburgh with my wife (a used book store owner) and our dog Ms. Moneypenny. I enjoy traveling, cooking, minimal/post-minimal music, yoga and the occasional playing my cello.